


Ariel's Revenge

by Untherius



Category: Little Mermaid (1989), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Twisted Princess (Disney Fanart)
Genre: Angst, Cannibalism, F/M, Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:32:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Untherius/pseuds/Untherius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A grisly ordeal sucks all the happily out of Erik's and Ariel's ever-after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ariel's Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> This work is based on the drawing of Twisted Ariel  
> http://cdn.gunaxin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/twisted-little-mermaid.jpg

It is said that some mermaids are born out of the tears of others. Those mermaids, it is said, embody the spirit and emotions of the one who cried those tears.

*****

Eric awoke with a splitting headache. He felt worse than he ever remembered. He was cold...very cold, nearly numb from the waist down. He was sitting in water...seawater, from the smell of it...his legs nearly dangling off the edge of a rock that supported his buttocks. His shoulders hurt like he'd been holding his arms over his head all day. He raised his eyes, looking up to the left and right, and immediately saw why. Both his hands were bound tightly in some strange-looking substance that looked like lard-covered rope. He pulled at it, but found that while it was itself slippery, it was fastened taut to sturdy trees that jutted out from the cliff above him and no amount of tugging would free him from it.

He looked around, trying to take stock of his surroundings. Everything looked so grey and muted, in a depressing way, like it was infused with fog, though the air was clear for miles. Greens were grey-green...browns were dusty-looking...blue was steely...even the water had an inky cast to it. Where was he? Wherever it was, a feeling of dread hung over him about which he had a very bad feeling indeed.

He vaguely remembered a storm and some flashes of light. They'd been odd...not quite like lightning. The more he tried to think about it, the more the whole thing seemed to slip through his mind. He coughed...which also hurt...tasting saltwater in his mouth.

A disturbance in the water in front of him caught his attention. A head crowned with flowing brick-red hair rose smoothly from the glassy surface, followed by shoulders clothed in pallid grey skin, smooth and broken only by the occasional pustulant lesion. Piercing yellow-ish eyes gazed into his own.

“Ariel!” exclaimed Eric. “Am I glad to see you!”

She grinned. “Are you now?”

There was something grating in her tone that made him nervous...something like two rocks grinding together, or a whetstone someone had neglected to oil before putting a blade to it. She looked and sounded like his wife...more or less...and his heart went out to her. “Honey, you...you look awful...like you've been a kraken's chew-toy. What happened to you?”

“I think you should be a little more concerned about what's going to happen to _you_ ,” she said sweetly, her voice now like honey-vinegar, tapping his nose with a finger. It burned a little.

“What?” He was now nervous _and_ confused. He pulled against his bonds. “Cut me loose, will you...please? What is this anyway?” he asked, looking up at the rubbery-looking stuff that held his arms.

“You don't recognize him, do you? Of course you wouldn't...not from the inside, anyway?”

Eric furrowed his brow.

Ariel giggled in a slightly malevolent way, with undertones of rusted metal on metal. “It's your Max, of course.”

Eric's jaw dropped. “ _What?!_ You're not serious!”

“Oh, don't worry. He didn't suffer...” Her grin widened to show two perfect rows of very sharp-looking teeth. “...enough.”

“You killed Max?!” Eric shouted, straining at his bonds. He didn't quite believe what he was hearing. “How could you?”

“Oh, it was quite simple, really.” Her smile faded. “Oh, but you must be hungry.” She held up what looked like a leg of mutton and raised it to his mouth. He turned his head. “It's not Max,” she scolded.

Eric peered at her incredulously with one eye. He was indeed quite hungry...famished, in fact. His stomach growled. Against his better judgment, he turned and took a bite of the proffered meat. He grimaced. It was still raw and quite chewy, but the flavor wasn't bad. He didn't remember ever having had anything quite like it. He ignored the warning in the back of his mind as he gnawed all the meat off the bone...a bone that, once exposed, looked suspiciously like a human femur.

“That was delicious, wasn't it?” said Ariel.

Eric had to admit it was quite tasty. He nodded.

“I'm rather partial to long pork myself,” continued Ariel.

Eric sputtered. “L...long pork?”

“Oh, yes,” said Ariel cheerily. “Your first mate takes...well, took...very good care of himself.”

Eric's stomach started to heave and Ariel put a clammy hand up to his mouth. “Now, now,” she scolded, “we can't have that. You're going to need it.” After a few moments, Eric's stomach calmed down and Ariel removed her hand. “That's better.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my Ariel?!” Eric demanded.

“Aw,” she said with feigned indignation, “is that any way to talk to your wife?”

“I don't know who you are, but you're _not_ my wife!”

“Are you sure?” she teased. She moved closer to him. He could feel her fishy lower body against his legs and only then realized he was naked from the waist down. She reached down and fingered his member. That burned just like it had when she'd touched his nose. It was uncomfortable, yet he felt himself growing aroused all the same. “Evidence to the contrary,” she said seductively.

Ariel forced herself between his legs and moved even closer to him. Her breath smelled like a mud flat at low tide. She kissed him. Her tongue was soft and mealy, lacking the firm sweet tenderness he'd known from the last seven years. She tasted like rotting fish and he nearly gagged again.

He felt himself slip inside her and that burned even more than her fingers had. She felt unexpectedly coarse on the inside. She began to move against him, each motion rasping, each stroke delivering both pain and pleasure, the one proportional to the other. The more she moved, the more intense the sensations. They reached climax together, his body filled with both ecstasy and agony. Ariel shrieked like a dying seagull.

She pulled away from him, panting heavily. “Oh, Eric,” she said seductively, “we're going to have _so_ much fun together, you and I...well, mainly me.” She gave him one more foul kiss and left him, the salt water stinging as his manhood tried to curl up inside him.

*****

“Oh, good, you're awake,” said Ariel, her voice still bearing that slightly grating tone. She held another chunk of raw meat up to Eric. “Hungry? You know you want some.”

Eric steadfastly kept his mouth closed.

“You're making things difficult, you know that?” She forced his mouth open and crammed the meat into his maw, working his jaws for him. “This would all go much better for you if you'd just surrender.” After a moment, she grinned. “On second thought...no, it would merely go less worse.”

She continued to feed him the meat and he continued to eat unwillingly. “Now, where were we?” she asked when he'd finished. “Oh, yes.” She again placed herself between his legs and had her way with him. She'd been doing this to him twice each day for the last week. Each time, the pleasure and pain—the one always commensurate with the other--had been greater than the time before.

When she'd finished, Ariel gave out a great squeal like an injured porpoise. “Oh, Eric, you're a genius!” She breathed heavily in his face and Eric grimaced, partly from Ariel's putrid breath and partly from the pain between his legs. “Why didn't I find you before?” She pulled back and glanced downward. “It's a pity, really,” she said ruefully. “I have what I need, so...” She trailed off and ducked beneath the water.

Eric felt something else between his legs, then a sharp, white-hot, screaming pain. He passed out.

*****

Eric awoke to a dull throb below his waist. He couldn't be sure how much of himself was still there and how much Ariel had bitten off. Nor was he sure which would be worse, a completely severed manhood or having to endure more of Ariel's...attentions. He looked up to see that mermaid's jaundiced eyes peering into his, her fetid breath stinging his nostrils. “Release me,” he croaked. “You said you have what you need.”

“I have what I need, yes...but not what I want.” She grinned like a demonic Cheshire cat, then pushed back between his legs. Eric felt something else between his legs and it was immediately clear that she'd left his equipment at least partly functional. “I see you want some more, too. Now the real fun begins!”

Eric cringed as he felt his wounds splitting open when he expanded into her and again there was even more pain than before. She sucked on his face, abrading his skin with her sharp teeth, her breath distracting him a little from the pain, working around to his ear. As she reached climax, she screeched in his ear and then bit off a piece of his lobe. He yelped.

“You're delicious,” she said, licking the blood off her lips. She turned around to look at a large, vicious-looking fish that had just surfaced. It looked a little like that fish she called Flounder. It was the same general shape, bore the same markings and coloration, but it was a little larger and bore powerful jaws with intimidating teeth protruding from them. Its strange orange eyes bore into him with a malevolent hunger that made the hairs on Eric's neck stand up on end. “Flounder,” she said to it, “I'm so glad you could join us.”

She turned back to Eric. The blood from his damaged ear ran down the side of his head and onto his shoulder. “I promised him a piece of the action...as it were.” She moved up to him and licked at the blood, her tongue burning his skin, then pulled back. “Now what comes next will hurt just a little. What comes after...less so.” If her previous grin was cat-like, the one she made now would have put a shark to shame.

Eric really didn't like the way she said that. Something about it made his skin crawl. Her grin bothered him even more. Moments later, he understood why. A sharp, intense pain shot through his left foot and he screamed once more. The pain came again. Something was biting his toes. Only then did he notice the fish Ariel had called Flounder was gone and only then did he realize that to his horror, he was being eaten alive!

He kicked, his foot impacting something soft. The pain from his severed digits shot through his foot and up his leg, bringing tears to his eyes. He kicked again, then felt the same biting pain in his other foot. He lashed out with that one. The pain moved to the other foot. Now he was kicking with both feet and screaming, sometimes hitting something, sometimes not.

The fish called Flounder re-surfaced, blood around its mouth and one of its eyes looked ruptured. Ariel looked at the fish. “Aw,” she said in dismay, then to Eric, “you injured him.”

“He bit me!” Eric yelled. “Repeatedly!”

Ariel sighed and shrugged. “Then I guess it's just as well you're out of toes.”

Eric's jaw dropped, his shock momentarily overcoming the intense pain in his feet. “ _WHAT?!_ ” he bellowed. “It... _ate_ me?!”

“Just a little,” said Ariel, “Don't be so dramatic. But, oh, are we going to have lots of fun together!” she exclaimed gleefully. Eric's hairs stood even further on end, if that were possible.

*****

Ariel sighed as Eric regarded her out of his right eye. Even after a week...at least, he thought it had been a week...his left eye socket still throbbed terribly. “You pass out too easily, Eric,” said Ariel wistfully. “We'll have to work on that. Your eye was delicious, though...and I so loved that squeaking sound you made when I licked on your optic nerve.” She cocked her head. “It's a good thing you have plenty of body parts left.”

Erik's heart hammered in his chest, his blood pounding in what was left of his ears. He worked his mouth, trying to form words.

“Are you thirsty? You must be. It's a good thing I brought this for you.” She raised an octopus out of the water and thrust it into his face. It wrapped its tentacles around his head. Then he felt something squirt into his mouth, followed by the most horrific assault on his taste buds that was somehow even worse than Ariel's kiss. He would have coughed, retched and spewed it from his mouth if the cephalopod hadn't been so firmly attached to his face. Instead, he choked down the vile liquid.

When he'd swallowed, the octopus let go, dropped into the water and swam away. He coughed and gasped for breath.

“See?” said Ariel. “That wasn't so bad.”

“Release me,” Eric whispered.

“Release you? Oh, now why would I ever do that? We're together forever! Isn't that what marriage means?” Then she had her way with him, the partially-formed scar tissue tearing, adding to the pain.

*****

Every day, she came to him. Sometimes she fed him something normal like raw fish, sometimes something less normal like sea anemones. Once she shoved a sea urchin into his mouth. Twice she brought electric eels. She made him drink more octopus ink, so much that he was starting to develop a morbidly curious taste for the vile stuff.

Every day, she took a bite out of his flesh somewhere on his body. Once every week, she had her way with him, each time the wounds she'd made re-opening in the process. Always, she made some promise that filled him with dread and always she fulfilled each one. Always she left him, the salt water stinging his open wounds.

Eric lost track of time, the days, weeks and months running together. His whole body was one mass of pain, some of it fresh and raw, some of it having receded into a dull throbbing. Sometimes storms came, sea water washing over him, stinging his fresher wounds and reviving the burn and the throb his older ones made. It filled his lungs over and over, yet he never drowned. Cold rain washed the salt and blood and scabs from his body until he was beyond shivering.

He didn't know how he was still alive. Ariel...or whatever she was...had torn off part of his lower lip, bitten out one of his cheeks, and gnawed off both his patellas. She'd ripped out his gall bladder and made him eat it—he didn't know how he'd even stayed conscious through the agony, yet he had and to Ariel's great delight. She'd climaxed over his screams alone. Day after day, Eric felt his mind and his heart slipping further and further away and there seemed no way to stop any of it.

Surely he was dead and this was hell. If so, there would be no end to his misery and therefore no hope at all for anything even remotely resembling relief. A dark despair crept into his soul, flowing slowly through him as much the pain that continued to wrack his body.

*****

One day, Ariel appeared with three mer-children in tow. They resembled not only her, but also himself as well. It was clear she'd conceived them probably sometime that first week during one of what only the most sadomasochistic individuals would have called love-making sessions. She introduced them as William, Elizabeth and Ian. His mind remembered those names. They were the ones he and his wife had given their still-born son, miscarried daughter and other miscarried son. Each of those events had been very hard on both him and his wife. She'd been early in a fourth pregnancy immediately before he'd awoken in this strange, frightening place. The memories pushed him further down into the black hole toward which he was inexorably sliding.

“Now, children,” began Ariel, “you know we can't have Daddy kicking you, now can we?”

“No, Mama,” they said in unison.

Ariel's grin widened in a way that sent a fresh wave of fear through Eric.

“Then you know what to do.”

Eric screamed as he felt all four of their mouths tearing at his legs, as his muscles tried to pull against his missing knees. After what felt like forever, he passed out.

*****

Eric awoke to the sight of Ariel and her children...his children...grinning at him. He severely disliked it. She reached into the still-raw wound whence she'd torn out his gall bladder. He screamed.  
“You'd better stay awake this time, dear,” she said as her hand rooted around in his gut. “You'll disappoint our children and you don't want that, do you?”

The pain was unbearable and he was surprised he was still conscious. After a couple of minutes, she pulled something out of his body. He didn't recognize it through the blur of agony and tears. He did, however, see her tear it into bits and hand one to each of the children. He watched as they sucked on whatever organ that was and saw the pleasure on their faces as his blood dribbled from their mouths.

“May we have some more?” asked William when he'd finished his.

“No, my son,” said Ariel. “Not until Daddy's liver grows back.”

Eric fainted.

*****

Eric awoke to the sting of salt water sloshing into his abdomen. Ariel and their children were nowhere to be seen, for which he was thankful. His relief was short-lived and his heart fell as he watched them slowly surface in front of him.

“I want to hear Daddy scream some more,” said Ian.

Ariel giggled in a way that sounded more like a dull growl. “He does make the most delightful noises, doesn't he?” she said cheerily.

“Mommy,” said Elizabeth, “you said Daddy only needs one kidney?”

“Yes, my dear,” said Ariel.

Elizabeth grinned that same predatory grin Eric had seen on Ariel every day. It filled him with dread. The little girl, his own daughter, reached up inside him and tore out one of his kidneys. The pain, as before, was horrific.

The girl looked up at Eric, her yellow eyes wide. “Would you like some, Daddy?” she asked.

“That was very nice of you, dear,” said Ariel. “Of course he would.”

Elizabeth tore off a piece and jammed it into Eric's mouth. He chewed reflexively. The girl looked back up at her mother.

“You see?” said Ariel. “Manners are important.”

“And now I should share with my brothers, yes?”

Ariel nodded and the four mer-people ate the remainder of the kidney as Eric watched numbly. Then he lost consciousness.

*****

Eric stared at the sea before him, his entire body on fire, his heart and mind numb. The fins of several sharks cut through the water's surface not far away. He didn't have the strength to make any noise. He hoped they noticed him anyway. He longed for them to come and tear him apart, to end the cycle of agony. He would gladly have heard the roar of a kraken than hear Ariel's voice ever again. He would rather smell the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses from its maw than Ariel's breath. He'd prefer the cold gaze of its lidless eyes to those of Ariel and their children. He'd choose its icy grip and terrible jaws over Ariel's clammy, burning touch.

His hopes were dashed once again when the sharks passed by and that devilfish and her demon children she'd spawned with seed she'd stolen from his body rose up in their place. Just the sight of her made his stomach churn...or it would have if he'd still had the energy for it. She swam over and kissed him eagerly. Eric didn't have the strength...not physically, not emotionally...to ask how or why Ariel was keeping him alive. He wasn't sure he really cared any longer and if this truly were hell, it didn't matter anyway. His mind slipped a little further.

“Now watch carefully,” said Ariel to the children. “This is the best thing ever.” Then she had her way with Eric as they children looked on. The pain—and the hideous nails-across-slate shriek that always accompanied her climax--was familiar, but no less unpleasant.

“May I try, Mommy?” said Elizabeth.

“Of course, dear,” said Ariel.

Eric weakly hoped he hadn't heard what he thought he'd heard. He was wrong. The girl went to him and had her way with him just like Ariel had. She screeched even more than her mother had. What remained of Eric's spirit died right then and there.

“That was fun!” said Elizabeth. “Do I get to do it again?”

“Not today, dear. Mommy has business with Daddy's heart.”

“May we watch?” said Ian.

Ariel nodded, then turned and reached up into Eric's body cavity. It hurt just as much as it had before. She thrust her hand through his diaphragm and forced it up between his lungs. The pain was excruciating. Then she laced her fingers through his vane-cava, pulmonary blood vessels and aorta to wrap them around his heart. Just when he thought it couldn't possibly hurt any more, it did. She squeezed and his body spasmed.

The children's gleeful giggles barely cut through his agony. How was he still even conscious? Surely Christ Himself hadn't suffered like this? Just when he thought he could bear no more, just as his heart stopped and he prepared to embrace death, Ariel squeezed it again and it beat once more. His mind was starting to hurt now, standing out against its previous numbness.  
Ariel pulled her arm out of him and presented it to the children. Together, they licked Eric's blood and fluids off of it. Sea water lapped against him, but he barely felt the salty sting. He was suddenly and vaguely aware of a bright light all around them.

“Wait,” cried Ariel, her voice like a bobcat in heat. “No! I'm not finished with him!”

He felt a pain inside his head, different from the physical torture he'd endured over the last several months. It increased rapidly and soon eclipsed the collective agony filling his body. It felt white inside his skull. It was true, he didn't know what white was supposed to feel like, but white seemed an apt enough way to describe it. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only moments, the pain in his head faded to be replaced by the extreme pain wracking his body. Any strength he may have had before had completely left him. He again lost consciousness.

*****

When Eric awoke, the color in his environment had returned. Green was once again green...brown once again brown...blue once again blue. He saw the head of a dolphin break the surface just a few yards out. It chittered at him, but he just stared at it with his good right eye. It still felt like every nerve in his body was screaming at him, even ones he knew had been eaten off.

Another figure abruptly surfaced. He immediately recognized the flame-red hair and large blue eyes. Ariel gasped.

“Eric?” Her eyes widened and she swam over to him. “Eric!” she screamed. He just stared at her. “Oh, Eric, what happened to you?” she said, tears flowing from her eyes. She moved over and kissed him on the mouth. She tasted sweet, just like he remembered. Eric just hung there, unable even to respond.

Ariel tried to free her husband, but he was still bound tightly, his dying hands a deep purple-blue with the prolonged loss of circulation. She looked around for something sharp and finally found a broken seashell. Cutting his bonds, she caught him as he lost consciousness again. Then she dove beneath the surface, carrying him with her, his ruined body leaving a weak trail of blood through the water.

*****

Ariel paced back and forth...or what passed for pacing with mer-folk...wringing her hands nervously. She looked down at Sebastian, who exchanged a worried glance.  
“He's in good hands, your Highness,” said Sebastian. “Eric will be alright...you'll see.”

“I wish I could believe you,” she said, a strong note of unshakable concern in her voice. “You didn't see him when I found him. It was like all the light had gone out of his eyes...eye. I don't know what happened to him...and maybe I don't _want_ to know...but it must have been terrible...very terrible....” Her voice trailed off as she began to cry.

After many hours, Triton swam up to his daughter. Ariel looked at him expectantly, but the stern expression on his face spoke volumes.

“He'll live,” said Triton, “but...” His voice trailed off. He sighed and caught Ariel in an embrace that he hoped would be comforting. “Ariel,” he said gravely, “healing wounds is one thing. Even transforming your tail into legs and back again...that's difficult...but re-growing entire organs and limbs? That's...well, not impossible, but nearly. And you know well that our tails are not the only things that set us apart from humans.”

“But...he'll be alright...won't he, Daddy?”

Triton sighed again. “He'll walk, but with a limp. His organ function will never be what it was. Rebuilding his left eye wasn't possible at all. He's still unconscious. In truth...I'm astonished he was even alive at all.”

“But you saved his life. Thank-you.”

“No, my daughter, you did. Your kiss saved him from drowning while you brought him here.”

“But Eric will be alright,” she repeated. “Won't he?”

“I don't know...not without having some idea of how he came to be in such a state. It must have been horrific and if he doesn't remember...maybe that's for the best.”

Ariel started to cry again.

“How's the baby doing?” said Triton, trying to take his daughter's mind off her husband's plight.

“Fine this time,” she replied. “Oh!” she exclaimed, placing a hand on her swollen abdomen. A smile spread across her face. “The baby kicked! I think this one will be healthy,” she said optimistically.

“Do you think he...or she...will be born mer-folk or human?”

“Human, I think,” said Ariel.

They were interrupted by Ariel's eldest sister Attina. “Ariel,” she said, “Eric still isn't awake, but we think it's safe for you to take him home now.” She looked worried. “Although...none of us...not even our father...knows IF he will awake and if he does, in what condition his mind will be. Things could be very rough for both of you.”

“I understand,” said Ariel. “And thank-you...for everything.”

“We're your family,” said Triton. They exchanged hugs and Ariel swam to retrieve her husband.

*****

Ariel could tell from the moment her husband opened his eyes that he'd never be the same again. She was right. In public, she took his arm as was customary, though she could sense he was always tense. He seemed amiable enough, though he seldom spoke to her, and rarely looked at her.

In private, it was entirely different. In private, he never touched her ever again. Not in love, nor in anger, nor in indifference. Nor did he ever speak a single word to her, nor make any sound directed to or at her.

They'd always eaten breakfast together and they still did. In the past, they'd sit next to each other, laughing, talking...Grimsby had once said they were the most sickeningly sweet couple he'd ever seen. Now, though, Eric sat across the table from his wife, never talking to her, nor even looking at her, despite her repeated attempts to strike up a conversation, make him laugh, even draw a smile.

At night, it was even worse. They'd always retire to their bed as they always had. Every time Ariel would try to touch him, Eric would recoil from her. Every time she would inch closer to her husband, he would retreat the same amount. Some nights, he left bed completely to curl up whimpering in a corner, leaving his wife to cry herself to sleep. A couple of times, he slumped against a cold window and suffered minor frostbite to a shoulder or part of his face, which he didn't seem to notice, even when a resulting infection threatened to take his arm.

Ariel tried...always as subtly as she knew how...to get Eric to tell her what had happened. He never talked about it. Even Grimsby was unsuccessful in learning what had happened to the Prince, despite repeated attempts.

Their daughter was born...healthy and with legs...a month after Ariel brought Eric back from his ordeal. Ariel named the child Melody. She was as beautiful as her mother, with gorgeous brown hair like her father's. Eric refused to hold his daughter, nor even so much as look at her. It broke Ariel's heart.

“Mama,” said Melody when she was old enough to talk, “doesn't Father love me?”

“Oh, I'm sure he does, my dear” Ariel always responded. In truth, though, Ariel wasn't sure. Not only would Eric not talk to her about the girl...or anything else, for that matter...he wouldn't talk to anyone else about her either. People asked questions, but he acted like he never heard them. Grimsby went so far as to confront Eric on the subject, but to no avail. It was like he didn't even acknowledge his own daughter's existence.

At the age of seven, Melody fell ill with tuberculosis and died. Ariel was beside herself with grief. Eric barely seemed to notice. He attended the funeral--mainly because Grimsby told him he should—but did not shed a single tear, nor speak a single word. His behavior did not change, even after that.

*****

A year later, Eric was planning a voyage to Germany. As Princess, Ariel was hopeful she'd get to come along. She thought maybe some time together away from home—a vacation of sorts—would be what he needed to start healing. She'd had to learn of it second-hand, like she'd had to learn about everything these days.

“Will the Princess be joining you, your Highness?” Grimsby asked during lunch two days before Eric was to depart.

Ariel perked up, eagerly awaiting her husband's response, hoping it would be “yes.”

Eric didn't look at his wife as he spoke. “No,” he said evenly, “she'll be staying here.”

Ariel's face fell and she had to force herself not to cry...which she later did anyway.

*****

One day, Ariel took Eric down to the sea shore. He hadn't been close to the water since that day his wife had dragged him back from the brink of death. Flounder was there waiting. Ariel was hoping he could cheer Eric and maybe break his melancholy.

“You remember Flounder,” she said cheerily. “Everybody likes _him!_ ”

Eric knelt down next to the water and put a hand out next to the small fish. Suddenly, he pushed his fingers into Flounder's gills and hauled him up out of the water. Before Ariel could react, Eric took a big bite out of the dorsal side of Flounder's caudal peduncle, ripping the fish's flesh from his back.

Ariel squealed in horror. Eric stood up and dropped the fish in the water. Then he chewed a few times, spat the remains out onto the beach, and limped slowly back toward the palace. Ariel dropped to her knees by where Flounder lay twitching in the water. She lifted one of his operculae and saw that his gills were torn up. Blood poured from the fresh wound on his back.

“He...” gasped Flounder weakly, “...he...ate me.” Then he died. Ariel wept.

*****

Even when Melody was two, Ariel had been thinking about having more children. Every time she broached the subject to Eric, he became violently ill. She never found out why, nor, apparently, did anyone else. Three times, she'd mentioned it in public with disastrous results.

Once she answered a question at a diplomatic function and Eric had immediately vomited all over the French ambassador. Ariel had politely excused herself and quickly retreated to a far corner of the palace. Erik found her not too long after that. Ariel figured someone—probably Grimsby—had encouraged him to go and comfort her. He only stood there for a few minutes, staring off into space with his good eye, before returning to their guests, leaving Ariel in tears.

*****

For Eric's birthday, Ariel took him down to the pier and gave him a puppy of the same breed Max had been.

“It's a symbol of our love,” she told him.

He took the puppy and looked at it for a minute, then tossed it into the sea.

“Erik!” cried Ariel in alarm. “He doesn't know how to swim yet!” Then she stripped off her dress and leaped into the water after the dog. She felt her legs fuse together into a tail, which always hurt.  
She swam to shore with the dog and waited for her tail to split back into legs—which was always nearly as painful as childbirth—and carried the animal back to Eric.

“Please be gentle with him,” she pleaded. “He's just a puppy.”

Eric looked at the dog—now completely drenched—and the dog wiggled excitedly, tongue lolling out, yipping enthusiastically. Ariel thought it was really cute. Then she watched in horror as her husband grabbed its head and deftly snapped its neck, dropping his little puppy's limp body into the water with less care than he would have taken discarding a ham bone.

“Eric!” she cried in alarm. “He was supposed to be a symbol of our love! Is...is that what you think of me?”

Eric looked dispassionately at her for a moment, then slowly nodded his head and limped back toward the palace. Ariel sank to her knees and sobbed.

*****

On the day of their fifteenth wedding anniversary, a celebration was held in observance of the occasion. Ariel still held out hope, thin though it now was, that her husband still loved her, would recover, and that this could be the day it happened.

A grand banquet was spread. Eric and Ariel sat next to each other at the head table. As usual, Eric neither touched, nor spoke to, nor looked at Ariel. She repeatedly stole loving glances at him, hoping to catch his eye, to see some glimmer of...well, anything...in it. It didn't happen.

When the time came to toast the couple, everyone, including Eric and Ariel, stood to their feet. Grimsby, who was by now getting along in years, led the toast.

“To Erik and Ariel,” he said, raising his glass. “A happier couple I have never seen. May they have many more years together.”

At that moment, Erik's body went rigid. His glass fell from his hand and he toppled over in front of his wife. Ariel screamed.

Ariel was inconsolable after that. She wore black for several years and it was said that the light in her own eyes died the same day her husband did.

Grimsby died a few years later. The day after his funeral, Ariel was observed on the pier as she shed all her clothing and dove into the sea. She was never seen again by anyone ashore or under the sea. Erik's younger brother assumed the throne.

*****

It is said that the mermaids of Whitecap Bay sprang from Ariel's tears and that all her sorrow and anger, fury and anguish and pain were poured out into them.


End file.
